The Brat I Babysat
by Angael
Summary: Bakura hates, and I mean HATES the neighborhood kids that he babysits for money, especially the youngest one. Ten years later when he meets the 6 year old he used to babysit, he has a different opinion. YB x MI. Dedicated to Shantih. xD


**Hahahaha. My aunt gave me inspiration for this story from a conversation we had about how age difference doesn't matter once you're older. xD**

**I haven't decided whether to make this a two-shot or start another multi-chapter story; help? O.o **

**Title: The Brat I Baby Sat**

**Dedicated too: ****Shantih****, because our conversations are so freaking hilarious you make me bust a gut. **

**Summary: Bakura hates, and I mean HATES the neighborhood kids that he babysits for money, especially the youngest one. Ten years later when he meets the 6 he used to babysit, he has a different opinion. THIEFSHIPPING. Yami Bakura x Malik Ishtar.**

**Disclaimer: As I said, I thought up this idea on my own. :3 If there is any resemblance to a fanfiction like this, please inform me and I will talk to the author about any coincidental similarities. If you wish to use this idea with a different anime or couple, just message me and it should be fine (: **

**Rating: T, for... I'm not even sure. This could be K+ but T makes me feel cooler. . **

_**Yami Malik has no physical relationship to Hikari Malik, and they are not related. They shall be differentiated as "Mariku" and "Malik". Err... Yeah. Pretty self explanatory.**_

**ODION IS SOOOO OUT OF CHARACTER IN THIS. BUT HE'S AN 11 YEAR OLD BOY SO IT'S OKAY RIGHTT? xD**

Yesterday it had all seemed like a great idea; he was ready to pay for the university he planned to attend in the fall, and with a few more hundred dollars he'd be set. That meant the albino could pick up a light job, maybe mowing people's lawns, or doing a car wash with his twin brother Ryou, silly things like that. So when Ryou had asked Bakura if he could babysit the neighbor kid's for a few days while Ryou was out of town and then keep the pay (it was $15 an hour- something that had amazed Bakura when he'd first heard), of course he had jumped at the opportunity.

Well, the sad thing was, Bakura had obviously never met the sweet demons.

Obviously, Ryou had given him a small heads up. Apparently there was supposed to have been one respectful 11 year old boy, a very smart and friendly 9 year old girl, and a harmless 6 year old boy. That was what he had gone in expecting.

To put it frankly, a job like this deserved $20 per hour. It really did.

At first when he'd walked in he'd met a fairly hurried mother, kind and polite, but obviously on a tight schedule. She'd all but ran out the door as soon as Bakura had arrived 5 minutes late, spurting something out about the kids explaining where everything was.

It had taken a mere 30 seconds for him to be completely alone in the house, excluding the 3 demon seeds.

So he'd walked into what he'd assumed to be the living room, well, had _tried _to. Bakura was interrupted on the way by a soccer ball hitting him harshly in the stomach, a powerful kick, rendering the poor 17 year old gasping for breath. Angrily Bakura had looked up, met with the blank yet scary and unforgiving face of who he assumed to be the 11 year old boy, Odion. The boy had yellow eyes, an odd color, Bakura couldn't help but note.

"Who are you?" the balding child asked rudely, arms crossed. "You're not Ryou. You must be his brother: if you don't play soccer with me I'm going to tell my mom that you were mean the entire time so she won't pay you." the 11 year old stated cruelly, and the teenager could only gape at the threat.

"Wh-what! You little-!" to prevent him from doing anything that might perhaps hurt his paycheck though, a girl soon strolled into the room, seeming quite like she owned the place.

Bakura could only assume this was the Ishizu he'd heard about, and noted that she, unlike her brother Odion, had a beautiful shade of bright blue eyes with nighttime black hair. What was up with this family? Mentally he wondered if the mother was a whore. "Where's Ryou?" the girl whined, frowning unhappily, hands on her undeveloped hips.

Odion shrugged. "Probably at some party, he wouldn't wanna take you since you're just a baby!" the immature child sneered, laughing as his sister began to hiss.

"That's not true! I'm Ryou's girlfriend; he wouldn't go to a party without me! I'm sure he's out buying me presents and flowers! Right, peasant?" Ishizu then turned a scrutinizing stare up to him, looking expectant. Bakura tried to resist laughing: he really did. But hey, after hearing that, you would probably be hiding chuckles too.

"Riightt. Why would Ryou buy present's for _you_? Somehow I doubt he's even into your gender." In retrospect, that probably wasn't the best thing to say, because the little girl immediately let out a horrified and outraged gasp while Odion laughed at her demise. In a fit of rage, the blue eyed girl grabbed a coke that inconveniently happened to be placed on a coffee table, and before Bakura could even block his face he'd been covered in the sticky brown liquid. Sputtering everywhere, the teen was not happy.

"You just don't understand Ryou and I's love! Odion, tell him he's being mean!" Ishizu cried in anger, stomping her foot on the ground in a bratty fashion.

"No one understands you and your boyfriend's love, Ishubrat!" Odion stated with a snort, drawing a squeal of anger from his sister's lips.

"I told you not to call me that, you... you...!" apparently the poor girl couldn't come up with any sort of competent reply, for she got even angrier and ran over, beginning to hit her older sibling. Meanwhile, Bakura was still caught up in worrying whether or not the coke was removable from his favorite white shirt, too bewildered and furious to even listen to the arguing brats.

Oddly enough, the only time he looked up was when a sudden silence fell over the room, and to his surprise the reason for the said quiet was the 6 year old boy standing in the doorway, whom strangely enough had managed to subdue his brother and sister just by being there. Bakura was caught up in those wise, small purple eyes, the most (and he really hated to even think this word) **beautiful** color he'd ever seen. What was almost as stunning was the platinum blond hair that hung fashionably around the small child's face, framing it perfectly.

There was silence for a moment. "What's your name?" the harmless (Bakura had to agree with Ryou on this one) little boy Bakura had ever seen asked softly, and the albino let out a large smirk, despite his wet state.

"I'm Bakura, I'll be babysitting you for today." he replied fondly, beginning to walk towards the boy, except the amethyst eyed male put up a hand, causing the teen to stop in surprise.

There was a long silence, throughout which Bakura was slightly confused by the weird behavior the three Egyptian's were emitting, although he didn't question. Finally, after what seemed to be and probably was minutes, Bakura being as impatient as he was, couldn't help but speak up. "Well? What is it!" he questioned, the tiniest bit annoyed.

There was another short silence, before the small boy broke into a delighted grin and turned to his brother and sister. "Tie him up. I don't like him." Bakura had trouble understanding those words, purely because they sounded so _wrong_ coming out of that angelic little face. Little did he know, the teenager should probably have already started running, because as Malik's sibling's started to come towards him, he wasn't at all prepared for the darkness that suddenly hit him like a bat to the head.

And that's all he could remember, and how he had gotten into this situation now.

What would this situation be?

Imagine a chair, sitting in a well-lit kitchen peacefully. Now edit the picture ever so slightly; try to envision him, Bakura, tied tightly to the chair with nothing but his boxer's giving him dignity. Yes yes, it's very hard, but once you have that, imagine two evil children laughing happily and running around him while playing tag, a small 6 year old splattering paint all over his face and uncovered body, and Sponge Bob blasting in the background.

Do you see all that yet?

Good, because that was the position he was currently in, and he was doing a bloody bad job getting out of it.

"Odion! Ishizu! Stop running around you're going to break-" _Smash._ "I am NOT paying for that, so you better not try to blame it on me! Will someone turn of the friggin' TV! H-hey Odion don't climb up there! _Ishizu_ stop looking through my text messages! Oi, who are you calling? What! No, I didn't say turn Sponge Bob up- MALIK FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP FUCKING PAINTING ON ME."

Silence fell throughout the room, as the television set was suddenly cut off while Odion and Ishizu came to a sudden halt in their game of tag. The small blond simply stared up at Bakura, eyes huge and hand halfway to the albino's chest, covered in gooey red paint. None of them breathed for approximately 5 seconds, but that was enough for Bakura to see the buildup. First the growing frown, then the furrowed eyebrows, the reddening eyes, and finally the boy had burst into hysterical tears, dropping the container of paint onto the ground so that it spilled all over the floor. In a moment's notice Ishizu was right by Malik, holding him in her arms and coo-ing him, while Odion was in front of him, eyes formed into a lightning glare.

"How dare you swear at my little brother! I'm telling my mom and you're going to be in huge trouble!" the boy yelled angrily, throwing a small fit, apparently enjoying the slight height advantage he had with Bakura being tied to a chair. Bakura paled (which was saying something, since the 17-year-old was already incredibly white).

"Th-that's really not necessary, I didn't mean to!" no one seemed likely to sympathize with his pleading voice and face, so he switched tactics. "If you tell your parents I swore at him, I'll tell them that you called Ishizu a bitch!" Bakura threatened, not even sure if the boy knew what a 'bitch' was, although he could hope! Odion almost seemed bored with the threat, face deadpan. He began to panic. "Okay okay! I'll give you whatever you want, kid! You name it and I'll do it for you, consider me your slave as long as you don't tell your mum and dad!" that seemed to work well, because almost immediately Malik had started smiling instead of crying, Ishizu had her hands folded behind her back happily, and Odion was smirking.

"Well..." the Egyptian boy pretended to think about it. "I suppose just because I'm a kind person. Ishizu, untie him." Like a good little girl, Ishizu did just that, and when Bakura stood up too quickly he felt the room spin, although he was given no time to adjust for Odion was quickly dragging him (Bakura had to admit, the boy was fairly strong) to a wide room that was filled to the brink with toys of all sorts. Everything from pin-wheels and lego's, to barbies and bratz, to play horses, stuffed animals and babies that cried when you touched them inappropriately, were stuffed into the room, scattered about in all directions.

Dress up clothes were strewn across the space, food was caked into the windows and carpet (which, to be quite honest, really wasn't very viewable), DVDs, CDs and cassettes were sprinkled in random places, and to finish it all off there was a broken bean bag with white beads speckled everywhere, most likely sinking into the floor. Bakura thought there might have been something living in that place and he suddenly had a sinking heart. "Odion... why have you taken me here?" Bakura asked, trying to cover up his nervous feelings with a note of irritation. The boy looked at him expectantly, making a face.

"You're going to clean it up, dick-wad!" Odion said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Bakura stared, before angrily asking "Okay: _ONE, _why are you allowed to swear in the house and I'm not! And two, I would need a herd of elephants and possibly an exterminator to clean all this up; you have to be kidding me! When was the last time you put something away? Or have you ever?" Bakura was coming to the conclusion that these kids were very, very spoiled.

Odion tsk'ed the albino. "I'm the one in charge, remember? If you don't start cleaning _right now_, you can say goodbye to any chances of me not telling my parents!" and with that, the 11 year old ran off laughing, leaving a miserable Bakura to clean up the largest mess in the world (at at least in Japan).

Three hours later finds our 17 year old albino _still_ cleaning up the game room, but also running back and forth, attempting to prevent the children from getting into too much trouble. Since a few hours ago, Bakura had been allowed to put on some actual clothes, even if they were covered in paint and coke. He was beyond irritated, but he also felt good about himself: he was making progress!

Just as Bakura felt he was almost half way done, he heard the door creak open behind him. Curiously he began to turn around, and what he saw made him want to cry. Nononono...

"Malik... what are you doing with that flour...?" Bakura asked nervously, and the 6-year-old smiled happily, eyes glinting innocently. The albino was frozen in place, tense; afraid that if he made any sudden movements, all his progress would be lost with a simple throw of the bag.

"Malik, you just need to put the flour down, okay?" he asked, voice sounding as if he were talking to a young child or animal. Malik didn't like that, and the young boy shook his head, smiling happily in a very kind way, as if he only intended the best for Bakura. Now, the albino was really starting to get frustrated, and very slowly he started walking towards the young child. "Come on... Malik... w-wait, no, don't-!" launching himself at Malik upon seeing the boy begin to move his hands, in retrospect, was an absolutely horrible idea. Indeed, the entire room was covered in flour, but perhaps more white than the said space (not counting the hair or pale skin, either) was Bakura himself, covered from head to foot in the powdery substance. He was left sputtering, eyes caked and nose plugged with the thick powder, wiping at his poor orbs that stung horribly. He spit out the horrid tasting cooking utensil, and looked up with murderous intent. The boy kept that same, sweet smile on his face, before turning around and beginning to run.

Without further thought, Bakura charged after the little demon, intent on catching him and punishing Malik in some horrid way. Of course, he hadn't realized that the evil boy was actually quite smart for his age, and therefore would have expected this.

Yes, as soon as he stepped out into the hall, he felt himself falling backwards, having slipped on _something._ He looked around in angry confusion, glaring at the beads that had been spilt everywhere, before scrambling to his feet once again, feeling his heart sink at the white patches covering the floor. He quickly reverted back to chasing the child, this time keeping his eyes on the ground and in front of him, to make sure there was nothing else on the floor. Sadly, this too was expected by Malik, because only a few seconds after his departure he felt something sticky drop on his head while running, and as he looked up he couldn't help but gag. Were those... eggs! He had very little time to mull over this though, because as he moved his eyes to wear Malik stood in an entry way, he could only stare in awe at the 6 year old whom held his cell phone over a bowl of who knows what.

"M-Malik... That cost a lot of money, you know!" Bakura said, feeling weak at the thought of having to buy another cell phone. Malik had that smile on his face again. "Malik... Come on, what would your parents say...?" but it was too late...

_Plop. _

Some sort of purple liquid splashed out of the basin, making the albino realize that this family had a lot of paint lying around, as well as he would probably need to start working over the summer after this. Joy.

He let out a groan, feeling his anger fade away, replaced with exhaustion as he slowly made his way to the kitchen, mumbling, "What did I ever do to you, kid?" Malik simply rocked on his feet, seemingly content with himself. It struck Bakura odd, that the child talked so little, and something else was strange... "Where are your brother and sister?" he asked suspiciously, and Malik grinned cheekily, shaking his head and putting his arms up in a clueless manner. Bakura growled. "Yeah, yeah I bet you don't know."

Bakura began to walk down the stairs in an irritated fashion, Malik following happily in tow, something hidden behind his back. Normally the teen would have been worried about this, but right now he was too annoyed to even notice or care. Sadly though, as soon as he got to the bottom of the steps, he felt himself step into a bucket of _something_ and fall forward. He let out a yelp, and then another manly cry for help as he felt the youngest child jump onto his back, straddling him. Somewhere from either of his sides he could hear all three of the snot-nosed brats laughing at him, and his eyes widened when he felt his hair being pulled.

"Malik! What in the world are you doing with my hair-!"

_Snip. Snip. Snip._

He let out a gasp, whipping around, thus throwing the boy off, white locks flowing down from the air. "YOU CUT MY HAIR!" he yelled, completely venomous. Bakura scrambled to his feet, getting ready to maim all three of the children (preferably Malik first) when he heard something that convinced him the world was ending.

The door unlocking, and then a motherly voice... "We're home, my darlings!" Bakura froze, although all of the children ran up the stairs (Bakura tried to follow them, although was pushed down by Malik), as they rushed to the living room, beaming at their parents and hugging them tightly.

"What... what happened to the house?" their father asked, aghast.

"O-oh my... Odion, honey, what's going on? Why is everything broken?" the mother sounded quite worried.

Bakura wanted to sink into the ground, but instead forced himself to walk up the stairs, dripping with glue (which had been what he'd stepped on upon walking down the stairs), eggs that had dropped from the ceiling, flour, and soon paint as he picked up his cell phone from the bowl where it had been dropped. He could hear the two parent's fussing over their children, beginning to panic. Silence fell over the room as Bakura walked in, eyes devoid of any emotion, and feeling like the survivor of a tragic massacre.

When he walked in, he expected the worst; for all the children to point accusingly to him and to not be paid what he deserved. What he was definitely not predicting was that they all were smiling up at their parents gleefully, hands folded in front of themselves. "Mom, can we keep him? He is so much funner than Ryou!" Odion beamed, and before his mother could correct the grammatical error, Ishizu agreed.

"Yeah! Even though I love Ryou, Bakura is even more handsome! Can we pleaseplease have him more often?"

Both parents turned to Malik, curious to what his reaction would be. The quiet boy smiled. "It was fun." Was all the 6 year old said, and with that, despite the chaos the house had fallen under, it was decided.

The mother walked over happily, taking the shocked Bakura's hand with glee. "I haven't seen all three of them happy and agreeing for such a long time! Won't you please agree to babysit them for the rest of the summer, until you go to university? Oh I'm so glad they met you!"

Bakura didn't know what to say, he couldn't... even if the pay was good... "Erm... it wouldn't exactly be in my place, since it's Ryou's job and all.."

"Oh don't you worry! We'll still pay Ryou for all the day's he would usually work- we're not short on money after all! Since the children love you so much though, you won't decline, right? Right?"

Bakura knew he was going to regret this.

"Umm... sure."

Most of his visits continued on like that, although he had to admit, as the summer progressed, Ishizu and Odion gradually began to be nicer to him, beginning to actually have fun with him, instead of at his demise. Malik never really learned that quality, which always tended to mean each of Bakura's visits were painful for him in one way or another. For Bakura, his feelings for the three children never changed; he always viewed them as snot-nosed brats that he had to put up with.

His babysitting schedule was on Saturdays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Apparently the children had summer classes that ran late on the other days, so he made fairly good money per week (around $330, which always awed his friends, although he still wasn't sure it was worth it). He usually stayed for 5 to 8 hours, depending on when the parents got home, and would arrive at the Ishtar's house around noon each day he worked.

Life continued on like that for about two months, until finally it was September, and he was ready to go to university; he was beyond excited; it was his last babysitting session.

The children's parents would be home in a few hours, and Malik had actually been fairly nice that evening, only pushing Bakura down the stairs, forcing him to clean his room, and playing a practical joke in the form of putting salt in a glass of milk Bakura had been drinking. All in all, a pretty uneventful night. It was 6pm, and he had just rounded up the three siblings, barely able to contain his excitement.

"I have an announcement to make~" the albino smirked proudly, and Ishizu leaned in, grinning happily, wanting to know what her crush was so excited about.

Odion seemed interested as well, and tapped his foot impatiently. "What is it, dickwad?" the name had become a weird sort of nickname for Bakura since their first meeting, whom really didn't mind. He was just glad the now 12 year old wasn't using violence against him anymore. Malik watched patiently, not saying anything, as usual.

"I'm going to be starting university in a week!" Bakura said proudly, Ishizu clapped her hands happily, while Odion looked slightly bored although pretending to care, nodding and offering some sort of smile.

"That's good."

Malik looked unhappy. Very, very unhappy.

Because the little boy had quite obviously realized something that his other two siblings hadn't.

"But... you can't." the small boy said, eyes wide and troubled. Bakura blinked, surprised by the odd sentence coming from the 6 year old.

"What do you mean I can't?" he asked, fairly amused to hear the answer.

Ishizu giggled. "Come on Malik! You should be happy for him!"

Malik kept on staring, and although Bakura had no idea about it, the boy, deep down, felt very hurt. "But... if you start university..."

Silence.

"You won't be able to play with us anymore."

Both siblings' went slightly still, and Odion laughed nervously, looking at Bakura expectantly, so the teenager could deny this accusation.

Bakura wasn't good with words, emotions, or children.

Therefore, he had no idea that him leaving would impact any of the small sibling's feelings, and continued to be quite clueless about the fact.

"Well, yea. I'm starting university though! I mean everyone looks forward to it, so what? You guys will get other babysitters."

There was another silence, and in this one, the three shared looks of confusion, hurt, anger, and then understanding. Bakura didn't catch any of these though, but when three matching glares were shot at him, he knew something had gone awry. "Hey, what's with the looks of hate? Aren't you guys-" whatever he planned to say, however, was lost, because the three simultaneously stood up, running in different directions and just beginning to _destroy _things, _everything_!

Naturally, Bakura began to panic, watching vases fall, the TV be knocked from its rightful place on the wall, the fridge being wiped clean of its usual occupants; he couldn't keep track of it all! With growing dread he tried to catch them, but it seemed as if they all were on some sort of revengeful rampage. They'd never been this bad, and when he finally did manage to get Ishizu and Odion under each of his arms, they began hitting at him- biting at him, kicking, yelling, and throwing tantrums as if they were mere toddlers. Malik had disappeared though- oddly enough. Bakura didn't even understand what he'd done wrong!

"Will you two settle down! Hey, stop pulling my hair! Ishizu, I'm not ticklish..." Bakura growled and turned around when he heard something behind him, and when he saw Malik, he was a bit surprised to see the boy unarmed and slightly unthreatening.

But then, Malik did what no man, little boy, male in general, or toddler should do:

He kicked Bakura (with all the strength in his small body) right in the nuts.

The albino fell to the ground with a pained fashion. "You little _fucking ass._" He barely managed to breathe out, hands reaching for his nether reasons as he squeezed his eyes shut in pain.

This was all some weird, strange sort of déjà vu. All around them there were those evil three crazy children screaming, breaking things, causing chaos, while Bakura was on the floor in pain. And suddenly, they all heard the door open, just like the first time.

Bakura could hear both parents' gasp, and he closed his eyes, wondering if he would have to pay for all the damage done.

Whether he had a $330 paycheck or not- he wasn't sure he could cover it.

"What in the world has happened here...?" Hanif (the children's father) asked, horrified.

"This... this is worse than it's ever been..." Nabirye (their mother) stated, appalled, like her husband.

Bakura then decided this would most likely be the time to enter the living room; else the children make the parent's even more stunned/shocked than they already were.

"I would like my pay, now. And then I would like to leave, and preferably never, _ever,_ EVER return to this house." Bakura was angry; irritated, annoyed; venomous, even. What had he done to deserve that sort of treatment! His privates still ached, and he had the feeling that if it weren't for his pride, his eyes would be watering.

The silence continued after that as all the room's occupants stared at him in surprise. The father looked about to question him, although the mother was already pulling out her purse (she was happy to comply, she needed to interrogate her children as to what had happened exactly), when Malik reached up and put a hand on her arm.

"Yes, sweetie?" the woman asked, confused. Malik tugged on her shirt, forcing her to lean down so he could speak at her quietly, frowning sadly. "Mhmm, what is it honey?"

The Egyptian boy furrowed his eyebrows, before finally saying, "Mommy... Bakura destroyed our house... I tried to stop him but..." Malik looked quite upset, and Bakura felt his jaw drop.

Now honestly; what parent in their right mind would believe that? But something Bakura had come to realize over these couple months; Malik was like the pride and joy of the family. What he spoke was like the word of God, and even his parents never questioned him. "You did what?" the father appeared furious, beginning to stalk towards him, believing every lying word that came from the demon seed.

"N-no! That's not true, I swear! It was all-!"

"And he said the big words 'fucking ass' at me..." Malik stated with wide eyes. "Mommy, what does that mean...?

The mother was quite troubled now as well, looking at him with untrusting eyes. After all; where would Malik hear that other than Bakura?

Bakura was at a loss for words, and was quite frankly beginning to back away towards the door, fearing the father's wrath. "You did _what_! I will be contacting your parents, how dare you use such language to my youngest son, and here I thought you had been a good influence on them!"

"A-and... he called Ishizu a b-bitch... is that a good thing to say, mommy...?"

Bakura was contemplating suicide, right then and there.

The father looked ready to explode, and Bakura feared that the small boy's next sentence might just send him over the edge. "And... And he... He called big brother Odion a dickwad!" and with that, the small boy burst into tears, and the old man really did lose it, causing Bakura to fear for his life.

"_GET OUT. GET OUT NOW, AND NEVER COME BACK, NEVER TALK TO ONE OF MY CHILDREN AGAIN!"_

Bakura didn't need to be told twice; he shot right out of there and didn't even bother closing the door:

No, he ran out of that house like the hounds of hell themselves were after him, and didn't stop running till he was three blocks away and panting heavily, eyes closed, temple pulsing and heart beating quickly. Even in his fatigued, exhausted and done in state, he managed to mutter one sentence.

"I hate you, Malik Isthar." And that day, that moment, in those seconds of absolute loathing, he promised himself he would always remember that name, and he burned a picture of that child into his mind, so that if they were to ever meet again he could extract some sort of revenge.

He had no idea how ironic his words would sound ten years later.

After that, as it turned out, the Ishtar family never did end up contacting Bakura's parents. He was nervous for a week or so, laying low, but finally decided once he moved out of Domino City and into his dorm room at his university in Tokyo that he needn't worry about such things anymore. Slowly, over time as he worked on his education, his memory of the children withered, and he slowly began to concentrate more and more on the people around him and his studies.

Every month or so he'd contact Ryou; see how the boy was doing. His twin brother had apparently taken up a job as a writer at some big time company, and from there on fallen in love with one of his fellow employee's. When Bakura had learned that the said employee was in fact male... well, he wasn't too shocked.

Life went on: it became more and more rare that he actually contacted or saw his family, as he got so caught up in getting a law degree (for he was quite set on becoming a lawyer), that he didn't really think of his life back home. He wasn't proud to say that it came to a point where he only called Ryou about once a year, but before he knew it, five years had passed and they'd only seen each other once at their aunt's wedding, where Bakura had been happy to see his family, share times, but then take a flight back to Tokyo.

Soon after that, five more years had passed.

He didn't see his family that entire time.

Maybe if he had an excuse, like settling down with a new family, or finding a wonderful girl, or maybe even getting his hands on a case that required all his attention, it would be alright. But the sad truth was he didn't. Of course, in ten years he had managed to get through university, get his law degree, and become one of the most sought over lawyers in all of Japan, but that was to be expected. He was Touzokuo Bakura after all! No one could beat him in a game of words, and every lawyer he fought with in a debate was forced to realize that.

And this is where we find out protagonist; walking out of a court room, a smug smirk on his face, after completely blowing away the defendant, judge, and offender that he'd been hired by. No doubt another case easily one. He could hear someone shouting words of loathing after him, and Bakura resisted the urge to 1) laugh and 2) turn around and send the said person the birdie. But of course, as said before; he resists. He's much too good for that.

He stalks up to his baby, his love: his beautiful, smooth, wonderful, curved jaguar. Bakura runs his pale hands along her sides, walking all the way around the beautiful animal (it's not a car. It's an actual living being, to him), before finally opening it's shiny door and elegantly sliding into the vehicle. He drove back to his expensive loft at a leisurely pace; enjoying causing the driver's behind him irritation. It was always amusing to know that people were swearing at you, and there was nothing they could do about it.

When he got to the building his loft was in, the albino blatantly ignored the landlady whom called a friendly hello towards him. He always did; who did she think she was? Important enough to speak with him about nothing in particular? Riightt.

As he got into his room, his ears picked up the sound of his computer beeping, signaling a new e-Mail. Curiously, the albino walked over to check it. The reason for his curiosity was because he had almost every person that would usually try to contact him blocked, due to their usual annoyance and irritating attempts to get together.

When he saw who the message was from, he raised an eyebrow, smiling at his brother's name printed out digitally on his mac. It had been about a year since he'd heard from the boy, although he really didn't think about Ryou much. He wasn't the best brother in the world; sue him (or try).

The e-Mail read:

_Hello, Bakura! I've missed you, as have mum and father. _

_Is all well? I miss talking to you once a month; sometimes I wish you didn't live so far away. But what can be done about it? You're pretty busy, I guess. (:_

_In exactly one week (I hope you're not busy!) we'll be having a family reunion back at our house and we'll be staying for a week having dinners that apparently some guests will be attending, and Mariku and I plan on going. Please be there? It would mean the world to me. And if you can come, please try not to embarrass me, I know it's the sort of thing you would do, around Mariku, I mean._

_You can bring someone if you want to, or have you not met that special someone yet? ;D _

_Oh well, I hope you're not busy._

_-Ry._

Bakura snorted with laughter upon reading the message, finding his twin's wording to be quite amusing throughout the letter. Also, the use of smileys even more entertaining. A week with the family? Well... it wouldn't be too bad. So he'd probably have to make some calls, cancel a few meetings; Tokyo would go on without him.

But first, to confirm it.

He took out his phone, pressing number two (yes, his younger twin brother took up his speed dial- Ryou would probably be number one, except the fact that it went to voice mail), and waiting impatiently for his sibling to pick up.

_//Hello?//_

Bakura grinned, strolling over to his couch and laying back on it. "Guess who, dork." There was silence, then...

_//Bakura!//_ Ryou exclaimed, sounding quite animated.

Bakura rolled his eyes, although he couldn't help but grin widely. "Yeah, yeah it's me. I just wanted to call and say that I'll be attending your stupid get together... or whatever."

_//Really? Oh I'm so excited now! I mean sure I'd been hoping, but will you really be there? I've missed you so much!//_

The albino just listened for a while with closed eyes as his brother ranted on and on, filling him in on useless nothings, although he didn't mind too much. He was willing to bear with it; he'd missed Ryou, too. Although he'd probably never admit it.

Suddenly though, the speech Ryou was in was cut off as the phone seemed to be taken away from the boy. Bakura raised an eyebrow.

_//Sorry, Ryou's brother. But you calling interrupted my foreplay, which in turned interrupted my sex. Can he talk to you later?//_

Bakura stared at the phone in utmost surprise at the rough voice he heard suddenly come to the phone, and in the background he could here Ryou exclaim 'Mariku! Hey, that's not funny, give back the phone!' Bakura laughed.

"A man after my own nature; sure. Have fun with that, Ryou's boyfriend." And with that, Bakura hung up, tossing his phone to the side and staring up at the ceiling.

So he'd finally be going back, huh? After ten years.

Back to his old street, neighborhood...

Vaguely he wondered who the guests would be that Ryou had mentioned in the e-Mail as his eyes began to close, and in the back of his mind, he wondered if he was forgetting something before he fell into unconsciousness.

Bakura was quite irritated. On the plane ride over, he'd ordered first class tickets (because that was quite affordable, for him). So when the flight attendants had very apologetically informed him that they'd had a miscalculation and he would be forced to sit in the regular seats (of course, he'd have a good refund), he hadn't been pleased.

What had made the issue worse however was that he'd been sat next to a skank. Or whore. Or prostitute. Or _whatever_ it was, that had proceeded to flirt with him the entire flight, and made him want to rip out his hair in annoyance. The girl (if she could be called such) had even had the nerve to suggest they go to the bathroom to 'get to know each other better'! He was way out of her league, even if she looked like she could be on one of those model shows.

He'd had even more trouble when he'd arrived at the air port, only to be notified that there had been a problem with the luggage dispenser, and all passenger's would have to come back the next day to receive their personal items, something which the air staff was very, very sorry about, apparently. So when he had to wait an entire hour in line to simply rent a car... well his blood was boiling. He'd scared the woman attending the car rentals shitless, although had managed to get a pretty good deal off a Compact Luxury SUV, even if it wasn't exactly his taste.

So when he drove onto his parents street, parked the car, only to be five seconds later scraped against by an offending motorcycle, you can imagine the murderous intent that blasted through him, and why he saw a vivid color of red.

He slammed the car door open, focused on giving whoever had dared dent his SUV a piece of his mind, and hopefully ruin their day.

He marched right over to the man that was beginning to take off his helmet, anger rushing through his veins...

Only to quickly die down, as platinum blond hair unfurled from the bright red helmet, swaying ever so slightly to reveal tan skin, which was clothed by a light violet belly shirt, which just barely hid a well developed stomach, which no doubt led to heavily built muscles. The pants the man wore were tight against the blond's legs and thighs, and he could only choke as wide, purple eyes turned around, looking at him in a daring yet apologetic way.

"Oi, sorry about that. I'm still not used to driving this thing."

Bakura stared, lips parted, brownish red eyes wide, and body slightly tense with surprise.

"Malik?"

Silence, before the boy finally responded...

"Err... Do I know you?"

**I really like Jaguars.**

**I make no excuses for that crack. *is shot***

**HAHAHA I HOPE YOU ENJOYED SHANTIH. THAT WAS TOTALLY DEDICATED TO YOU.**

**By the way, if you haven't checked out ****Shantih****'s story "Breath For An Outside God" (or something like that), you should go read like, now. Seriously. **

**Word Count: 6.932 (Woah... you have about the average of my Shooting Star chapters, Shantih. Nice work. xD)**

**Date Completed: I'm actually not sure what today is... 5/1?/10, or something like that. HAHA.**


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